Amazon hopes to have content deals in place by the middle of October says source

A report has surfaced that Amazon plans on having a new TV streaming box on the market in time for holiday shopping. According to the report the new streaming TV box is codenamed Cinnamon.

Sources also suggest that Amazon has approached software developers and cable providers in recent weeks in efforts to secure content partners for the set top box by the middle of October. Amazon has made no official statements on rumors about the set top box at this time.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos [Image Source: PBS]

Amazon will be stepping into a market to compete against companies lie Apple, Western Digital, and Roku. Amazon already competes directly against Apple in the tablet market and is one of the more successful players with an estimated 22 percent market share.

The set top box from Amazon could be an interesting offer since the company has a history of selling new products at break even in hopes of making money on content. Amazon runs the successful Prime movie streaming service that will undoubtedly be closely integrated into any set top box the company provides.

Um, they have content that is rental, content that is purchasable, and content that is free. A lot of the content goes into all three of those categories, some goes into only one or two of them. The rental and purchase price are there for content that is not streamable, and the alternative is that it is not available at all.

You can browse free content easily without any purchase or rental prices, and their library is not far behind Netflix and it includes many things Netflix does not.

Honestly though, regardless of which you prefer Amazon wins. Netflix is 95% hosted and delivered by Amazon and uses most of the same streaming platform and back end.

I meant paid options are there for content that is not available for free, obviously it is all streamable. It is not a bait and switch, it is content that simply would not be available were it a service like Netflix that offers no purchase or rental options.

If all the best stuff is a separate rental fee, what's the point of me being a subscriber?

quote: The rental and purchase price are there for content that is not streamable

But it IS "streamable", they just want an extra "rental" fee from me before I can watch it, on top of the subscription. I understand they are a business and seek to make a profit, but my subscription fee should be enough!

And yes, there's a clear bait and switch. Their setup is extremely misleading. To intentionally give the impression that there's more Prime content available then there actually is. When you click on something you want to watch, ONLY then do you discover they want an extra 'rental' payment.